Improvement in many-barreled fire-arms



Patented May 10, 1864.

ITLVentOT N-PETERS, FHOTO-LITHOGRAPNER. WASHINGTON. n c.

"UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WM. H. ELLIOT, OF FLATTSBURG, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT lN MANY-BARRELED FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,648, ted May 1 1 4-To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that 1, WM. H. ELLIOT, of

V Plattsburg, in the county of Clinton, in the State of 'New York, haveinvented a new and Improved Repeating-Pistol; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of referencemarked thereon.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same devices in all thefigures.

To enable others skilled in the arts to comprehend, make, and use myinvention, I will proceed to describe its nature, construction,

L and operation.

of the hand after cocking by a spring; and it further consists in theemployment of a stoppinto prevent the latch from being turned backwardby the action of the revolving pawl.

Figure 1 is a vertical section of my improved pistol, showing the lockand revolving devices in'elevation. Fig. 2 is an elevation of thehammer, lever, trigger, and stirrup, showing these devices in the exactposition they occupy in relation to each other at the moment thefiringpoint explodes the charge. Fig. 3 is a section of the frameimmediately behind the breechplate, showing the firing-pin in its place.Fig. 4 is an elevation of a firing-pin and revolving pawl, showing aspur-ratch upon the pin. Fig. 5 is an elevation of a firing-pin spring.Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a firing-pin and spring.

a a are frames; 12, barrels; c, cartridges; d, hammer; e, trigger; f,stirrup; g, mainspring; h, lever; i, revolving pawl; i,-cut in the framefor the revolving pawl; 70, firing-pin l, firingpin spring; m, stop-pin;n, firing-point; 0, main seat of the stirrup in the hammer; 0, stop-seatp, pivot by which the barrel is jointed to the frame; q, pivot of hammerand lever; r, ratchet of firing-pin; s, revolvingpawl spring; t,trigger-spring 24, pin upon which the lever acts to depress the hammer;

'v, lever-spring; w, full-cock notch on tumbler; w, half-cock notch y,cut in the frame for the hammer.

The operation of my improved repeatingpistol is as follows: Bydepressing lever h it comes in contact with pin w and carries the hammerwith it till the sear or trigger falls into full-cock notch 20 and holdsthe hammer at full-cock. By releasing thelever from the pressure of thethumb the spring 11 causes it to return to the position represented inFig. 1. The pistol is now cocked and ready to be fired. This is done bypressure upon the trigger in the usual way. At the moment the hammerfalls upon the cartridge the stirrup ceases to act upon its main seat 0,and the whole force of the mainspring, resting upon stop-seat 0, causesthe hammer to fall back alittle, as represented in Fig. 1, till bothpoints of the stirrup find rest in their respective seats. In thisposition the sear readilyfalls into the half-cock notch 00 in thetumbler or hammer, and thus prevents the hammer from being drivenforward by accident so as to explode a charge, and at the same timepermits'the firing-point to fall back from the head of the cartridge, sothat either may be moved without interference from the other. Revolvingpawl i, being attached to the lever, is carried down with it, thuscausing the firing-pin to revolve one notch, bringing the firing-pointover the next charge. As the firing-pin revolves the notches or teeth7", being suitably beveled off on the forward edge rise, and pass overthe pin m and fall down behind it, being forced down by 7 spring I. Thenas the lever rises by the power of spring o the pawl 73 is carried upand takes hold of a new notch upon the firing-pin, which is preventedfrom being turned backward when the pawl passes upward by stop-pin m.

Figs-.4 represents a spur-ratch on the firingpin with the )awl actingover the points of I Fig. 1 the pawl acts upon the eeth. Aspur-ratch maybe used en five or more teeth are reiece of the lever occupies the nrelation to the handle of the quld if it were attached to the feingattached to the lever, it is 0" remain depressed while the t full-cock,but is thrown up out of the way of the hand as soon as released from thepressure of the thumb. Thus the employment of an independent lever forcocking which is thrown upward or forward by a spring is a very greatadvantage in pistols when a thumb-piece upon the hammer would interferewith the position of the hand.

In all pocket-pistols compactness is very much to be desired, and thisend is attained in a very great degree by so constructing and arrangingthe hammer, as shown in the drawings, that it shall swing within theframe or under the hand while it is cocked by a lever, which is thrownforward out of the way of the hand while the hammer remains atfull-cock.

' Even in pistols in which the hammer does not swing within the frame orunder the hand, a much better hold may be obtained for the hand when thehammer is cooked by a lever.

which operates as before described. Less injury is done to thecocking-pawl in working the arm by attaching it to the cooking leverinstead of the hammer, as the motion of the hammer is so rapid and itmoves with so much forcethat the revolving devices are often injured byit, while the motion of the cookinglever is governed by the thumbentirely.

By so constructing the lock that the hammer is thrown back afterfalling, so as to catch the sear into the half-cock notch, severalimportant points areattained. When a hammer and sear so operating areemployed with chambers that are bored through and charged at their rearend with fixed ammunition the cartridge-shell is relieved of thepressure of the firing-point, so that when the chamber is opened bymoving it laterally away from the breech-plate the face of thefiring-point is not dragged over the rear end of the cartridge, whethersaid firing-point is a part of the hammer or a separate piece, and inworking those arms which have the hammer exposed, as is the case withnearly all arms, any pressure upon the hammer while in the act ofopening the chamber could not interfere with that operation. A blow uponthe hammer or dropping the arm could not discharge it, as the hammer,upon being snapped, at once assumes the halfcocked position, and restsin no other position except at full-cook. When a firing-pin is employedit is necessary, in order to obtain the full advantage of thisinvention, that the firingpin have a spring to throw it back from thecartridge. This spring in my improved pistol serves the double purposeof throwing the ratch against the stop-pin m and of throwing thefiring-point back from the head of the cartridge.

Having described my invention, what I desire to have secured to me byLetters Patent of the United States is 1. So constructing and arrangingthe scar and tumbler in relation to each other that when the hammer isthrown back a little by the power of the look after falling upon thecharge the sear shall fall into the half-cock notch, as and for thepurpose herein specified.

2. The employment of a cocking-lever, in combination with the hammer andfiring-point, for the purpose of giving motion to the two latterdevices, as specified.

3. The employment of spring 22 for throwing the lever out of the way ofthe hand while the hammer remains at full-cock, when said lever is soarranged that when it is depressed its thumb-piece occupies a portion ofthe handle of the pistol, as herein shown.

WM. H. ELLIOT.

'Witnesses:

' M. LEwIs, (J. Roonn.

